New Guitar Design Idea

[REICHLEIN]

I play both traditional guitar, and Rock Band guitar, and after playing, I thought of a way to optimize the Rock Band guitar to feel like it was playing a lot more naturally. The first idea is to have the strum bar set in to the guitar farther. I like to use a pick, and one of the major problems I'm having is that the strum bar protrudes a bit too much. If it was set in farther, I could strum a lot faster, and in time, and be way more accurate. The other change I would make is the button configuration. As we all know, guitars have more than one string, and I think that Rock Band should try and emulate this, so here is my proposal. Tell me what you think.

http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/9483/sampleguitarnecksa6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Crappy mspaint drawing, I know, but you get the idea.

[JVeeJVee]

This basically ruins the purpose of having.. 5 frets?

[REICHLEIN]

Not really. There is still 5 buttons, just placed a bit differently.

[Conner_Malvecino]

Not really. There is still 5 buttons, just placed a bit differently.

Hey REICHLEIN, I just sent you a PM but I'm not sure if you received it.

[Bearclaw]

It looks interesting, but the complexity would confuse most players as compared to the frets all down in a line. I like the concept, but this far in to guitar gaming it would take some getting used to.

[godmodeon]

I'm gonna commend you on this, as I've been thinking something similar. Instead of just 3 frets with different colors on only 2 of them, I was thinking of making 5 frets with an up arrow and a down arrow on each fret, also represented on the screen. That would be such a ***** to do seeing it on a note chart, but then again, it was a ***** in GH1 when I moved from medium to hard difficulty seeing that new note that I had to move my pinky for.

It's a great idea, and I'd love to see it be the next step.

[JackBNimble]

I get what your trying to do but you have to remember that this is just a game not a guitar simulator .Having button placements like that would probably scare the average gamer away from RB.
And then there is the question of how they would make the note chart?

[fourdegrees]

How would you do HOPOs?

[REICHLEIN]

To answer the last two questions, no reworking of the note charts would need to be done, you'd just need to learn to think more like a real guitarist. HOPOs would be done just like they are done now. If you have a green to yellow HO, rock your finger.

[SlitN33_B33rZ]

I fully understand what you're trying to do here.

The first time I played this with my son, I got boo'd off the stage. I am a musician. I've played in real bands. Some of these songs I've played for over 20 years. I know them inside and out.

At the end of the day, this is a game. I took what I knew about a fretboard and root notes to a game. It doesn't translate. In the game they just have you pushing buttons in time with the screen. Its not helping anyone with a real guitar or playing better.

Its a fun game, but you have to take the musician's "brain" out of the equation.

That said...

Your design would have one moving up and down the fretboard. That's a good thing. Perhaps later on Harmonix will take the better songs and tie them into a guitar trainer that would help anyone make the transition to the real thing and make them a better player. If they do that they'll have to have a better guitar kind of inline with what Kawasaki and Hasbro already did or a combination of the 2.

http://www.amazon.com/Hasbro-Power-Electric-Guitar-Black/dp/B000OL0ULO/ref=pd_sbs_t_title_1

http://cgi.ebay.com/Kawasaki-Music-Guitar-Whammy-Bar-NIB_W0QQitemZ230214937935QQihZ013QQcategoryZ38287Q QssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem#ebayphotohost ing

You're using your head. Rock on!

[defmonkey]

but what about green to blue HO/PO? Just slide your finger up and down?

I had a simliar idea, that I posted back in the old GH forums after GHII came out of the 360, about making a new guitar design that basically split all 5 frets in half, so there are 10 frets and more of a complexity for chords and whatnot.

And I was getting basically the same thing you're getting right now.

It looks pretty cool, its promising, could scare away new gamers, and its just a game.

But I would support it!

[Coldplayer]

Some people seem to think that the buttons should simulate strings. But they don't. They simulate Freds.

[Randal]

I think it would be a good idea for the guitar hero makers to do to separate them from rock band. Right now all GH is, is a one dimensional RB game. I think they should expand on the guitar work. Make it closer to a simulator. Then I feel there would be a reason to go back to GH. Because right now I know I probably will never get another GH game with RB on the market.